The Yellow and the Green

Posted on January 12, 2004 in California Watch

Now is the time when the canyon bottoms turn bright orange and lemon and the hills assume a ripening lime. It’s the time when the navel oranges swell and color as snow caps crown Mounts San Antonio, San Bernardino, and San Gorgornio. It’s a puzzling time for those raised in “white Christmas country” when the Golden State defies the rules of the rest of the nation. When it rains, the runoff wrests rocks and dirt off the hillsides. We smell things more keenly while it lasts, see peaks that rise fifty miles or more away if there are no obstacles. It’s the time of clear skies and cool temperatures, of dead leaves and fresh springs of grass. The yellow and the green.

This is my California in winter.